HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 489 



stance is destroyed, each cell may be entirely separated 

 from the rest a . 



You must not imagine that all the cells of a hive are 

 of precisely similar dimensions. As the society consists 

 of three orders of insects differing in size, the cells which 

 are to contain the larvae of each proportionately differ, 

 those built for the males being considerably larger than 

 those which are intended for the workers. The abode 

 of the larvae of the queen bee differs still more. It is 

 not only much larger than any of the rest, but of a quite 

 different form, being shaped like a pear or Florence 

 flask, and composed of a material much coarser than 

 common wax, of which above one hundred times as 

 much is used in its construction as of pure wax in that 

 of a common cell. The situation, too, of these cells (for 

 there are generally three or four, and sometimes many 

 more, even up to thirty or forty, in each hive) is very 

 different from that of the common cells. Instead of 

 being in a horizontal they are placed in a vertical direc- 

 tion, with the mouth downwards, and are usually fixed 

 to the lower edge of the combs, from which they irre- 

 gularly project like stalactites from the roof of a cavern. 

 — The cells destined for the reception of honey and 

 pollen, differ from those which the larvae of the males 

 and workers inhabit, only, by being deeper, and thus 

 more capacious ; in fact, the very same cells are succes- 

 sively applied to both purposes. When the honey is 

 collected in great abundance, and there is not time to 



a Memoirs of the Wemerian Society, ii. 259. This however 1ms 

 been denied, and seems inconsistent with the account given by Ru- 

 ber hereafter detailed. 



